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Latin America

Throughout the twentieth century, there have been few experiences of self-management in Brazil, usually organized by immigrants at the beginning of the century, or by the Catholic Church in the 1950s. During the 1960s, agricultural cooperatives grew in number however these were experiences mainly led by a business perspective, or supported by the military dictatorship as state policies to oppose popular pressure for land reform. read more »

In Venezuela experiences of self-management, workers control and co-management of the means of production and services can be found since the historical cooperativism to nowadays. The beginnings are in the early 20th Century. Carlos León, follower of the french Charles Gide, promoted the founding of cooperatives in Venezuela. The cooperative movement was victim of fierce repression. León was imprisoned in 1914 and exiled to Mexico in 1923. In the 1960’s the government as well as leftist organizations promoted cooperatives. read more »

Workers’ control of production has been associated for many years in Argentina with the establishment and diffusion of workers cooperatives. Outside cooperativism, factory occupations have often represented the way through which workers’ took control of production. These occupations should however be inscribed within the repertoires of collective action rather than representing a clear strategy for workers’ control. read more »

The destruction of the welfare state in Europe and the continuation of the state of social ills in the rest of the world are the consequences of an irrational society. In Spain, Portugal and Greece 40% of young people are unemployed and the state has unpayable debts. After riots in England’s capital city the Government insisted on calling the youth “vandals without a cause”, dismissing out of hand the obvious social causes of the revolt. read more »

Workers’ self-management and related forms of workers’ control over production is associated with periods of societal transformation. In its most advanced form it presents a challenge to capitalist property relations as part of a revolutionary process. Workers’ Councils, as a form of self-management, have occurred under capitalism but also in Communist command economy states. The relationship between the practice of self-management and the class nature of the state is not, however, straightforward.read more »

Argentina’s worker-recuperated enterprises emerged out of the unraveling of the country’s neoliberal experiment circa 1997. With traditional union tactics proving incapable of addressing workers’ immediate needs, some workers took matters into their own hands by occupying and reopening their bankrupted or failing firms as workers’ cooperatives under the auspices of autogestión (self-management).

Worker self-management (WSM) has re-emerged as a major movement in Argentina, particularly this year with over 200 factories organized and controlled by their workers and a national co-coordinator of self-managed enterprises in the process of being organized. read more »

The Working World (TWW) is an alternative loan fund that supports worker run co-operatives and other democratic workplaces with micro-credit loans and technical support. They also refer to themselves as a “solidarity financial organization” which promotes community wealth maximization and worker ownership through loans to worker-run companies.

Annie McShiras talked with Brendan Martin, founder and president, and Ethan Earle, a board member, about the solidarity philosophy they use as an organized loan fund, their goal of maximizing community wealth through their loan funds, and the importance of building a “culture of belief.” She also reviewed the basic kind of work they do with them.read more »